A National Technical Working Group established by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) is currently assessing the possibility of deploying COVID-19 vaccines in the country.
The Technical Group has identified vaccines manufactured by Pfizer with 98% and Modena with 94% efficacy levels, as possible ones to be deployed into the country though about 10 vaccines were at different stages of development globally.
Patrick Kumah-Aboagye, the director-general of the GHS, who announced this in Accra, at the COVID-19 Update, said the Technical Working Group was assessing the country’s logistical needs and deployment plan for the vaccines.
Dr Kumah-Aboagye failed to state the exact time the vaccines would be deployed in Ghana but indicated that other countries would start using the vaccines this month.
He said Ghana’s COVID-19 active cases stood at 775 as of 24 November 2020, declining by about 500 cases recorded in October.
Dr Kumah-Aboagye said the country’s cumulative cases stood at 51,233 with 50,127 discharged with 323 deaths, representing over 95 per cent recovery rate.
The active cases were fairly distributed across the regions including the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Bono, Western, Eastern, and Central.
In the Greater Accra Region, he said, the active cases were in the Central District of Accra, Shai, Adenta, and Ningo-Prampram.
On COVID-19 testing at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), Dr Kumah-Aboagye said over 60,000 passengers had been tested at the airport with 264 positive cases recorded.
Forty-two positive cases were recorded in September, 98 in October, and 120 as of November 24.
He said most of the passengers who tested positive at the airport were Ghanaians coming from the United Kingdom, USA, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates.
Dr Kumah-Aboagye expressed worry about the declining rate of nose mask-wearing, saying, that a recent survey conducted by the GHS revealed that wearing of nose masks had reduced from 44% to 7%, between 11 and 38% of persons were not wearing the masks properly, while 82% were not wearing the mask at all.
He urged all Ghanaians, including religious leaders and traditional authorities to join the nose wearing campaign and adherence to the COVID-19 safety protocols to avert the spread of the respiratory disease.
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